We’ve all been patiently waiting for Elon Musk to finalize his Twitter acquisition.
It has been a gruelling couple of months since the Tesla Founder made his annoucement, that he is planning to purchase the social media platform for $44 billion.
Musk stated yesterday, in an interview for the Qatar Economic Forum, that three major factors must be rectified before he will move ahead with his Twitter buyout offer.
Elon Musk’s major issues with Twitter
During his interview, Musk outlined that there were a number of “unresolved matters”.
These being:
- Fake Accounts
He has been very outward regarding his growing concerns about the current magnitude of fake Twitter accounts.
Efforts to undermine social media platforms like Twitter with such profiles and bots are not surprising, however Musk claims he wants Twitter to be more transparent about how many of its users are legitimate.
Musk has stated several times that the offer cannot move swiftly unless Twitter can support their claim that fake accounts account for only 5% of its user base and he is urging for evidence against this matter.
2. Debt financing
According to his interview, the second major impediment to the Twitter transaction is the amount of debt required to fund it.
Although Elon Musk has been noted as the richest man alive, holding a strong net worth of over $213 billion, he requires financing for this acquisition to go through.
Musk stated in May that he would pay $33.5 billion in cash for the firm. Moreover, he obtained arrangements for $7.1 billion in equity funding, from investors such as Oracle co-founder Larry Ellison and the cryptocurrency exchange Binance.
Leaving $3.4 billion for bank loans to make up for the rest of the takeover offer, though the specifics of how this will play out is yet to be determined.
3. Shareholder approval
It’s unclear whether Musk will receive shareholder support for the acquisition. A number of Twitter shareholders sued Musk and the company last month for the hostile handling of the process so far.
Twitter shareholders must accept his proposal, which the company’s board has advised of till this date.
It has been speculated that a shareholder vote is expected to take place on Musk’s bid later this summer.
During the interview, Elon Musk stated:
“My aspiration for Twitter, or in general for the digital town square, would be that it is as inclusive in the broadest sense of the word as possible,” continuing to claim, “It obviously cannot be a place where people feel uncomfortable or harassed, or they’ll simply not use it.”
Additionally, he was also questioned as to whether he plans to be CEO of Twitter.
His response, “I would drive the product, which is what I do at SpaceX and Tesla. Whether I am called the CEO or something else is much less important than my ability to drive the product in the right direction.”
Do you think the takeover will be resolved amicably in the next few months? Let us know your thoughts on Twitter @itpliveme.